Happy Birthday Chris, And Other Observations

First of all, I want to start out by wishing a huge Happy Birthday to my old friend Chris over at www.redhogdiary.com. Chris turned 48 today, the same age that I will be turning in three weeks, and while I am not sure if that number - 48 - is an issue for Chris, it's been on my mind a lot lately. Why? I mean when you think about it, 48 isn't a "milestone" birthday like 40 or 50. I think the thing that bothers me about 48 is that I will no longer be able to refer to myself as in my "Mid-forties." 48 is closer to 50 than 45, so I will soon be in my "Late-Forties". But, the good news is that no matter how old I get, The ol' Red Hog will always be older - even if only by three weeks.

And if number 28 isn't bad enough, I have only four months until my 30th High School reunion, which means I only have four months of my youth left. The people I went to high school with, most of who I haven't seen since the 20th reunion, looked pretty good at that reunion. I have a feeling that the 30th won't be as kind to some of them. Oh, not me - I haven't aged a day since high school.......

And while I don't really want to pile on Chris on his birthday, I do want to address some comments he made the other day on his site. Normally I would comment there, but Chris's site has been undergoing some changes, and leaving comments has been difficult.

Chris reported on the NY Times accusations of John McCain last week, and while Chris is a liberal and it shouldn't surprise me he took the Times side, I was disappointed with his reaction. What disappointed me was the following sentence: "The story is no less newsworthy than the stories about the alleged and the proven affairs of Bill Clinton and it obviously has an infinite amount of more credibility than the Swift Boat allegations made against John Kerry." Lets look at that, shall we?

First of all, the "allegations" regarding McCain's "affair" amount to a former aide suggesting that McCain avoid contact with Vicky Iseman during his failed 2000 Presidential run. It appears that the most damning thing we have here is the fact that these two had contact with each other. Period. There is zero evidence of an affair, not even a shady witness who saw or knows something. Compare that to semen-stained dresses, accusations of unwanted physical attacks, and settling sexual misconduct cases for hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention Clinton testifying under oath that he and Genifer Flowers did have a sexual affair - after years of accusing Ms. Flowers of being a lying loon. Yeah, I'd say the two are equal.

The funny thing here is that anytime I commented on anything regarding Clinton's sexual past, Chris would attempt to shoot me down for wallowing in the gutter, and ignoring real issues. Yet as soon as he has the chance to wallow in that same gutter - regardless how flimsy the charges are - he jumps right in.

And then there is the "swiftboating" comparison: The story.... obviously has an infinite amount of more credibility than the Swift Boat allegations made against John Kerry." Oh really? Well, here we are several days after the McCain "story" broke, and the big explosion that Chris was expecting is there - however it has been addressed at the Times for "reporting" such a shallow allegation. Not unlike the story that Dan Rather broke about George Bush's service which ultimately lead to his downfall, the Times has shown that as long as the target is a Conservative, the left will believe anything.

And let me say this before I go any further: The story that the Times is reporting MAY be true. I doubt that it is, but I don't discount the fact that it could be. And if it is, then I will deal with that, but I'm not going to waste any thought on what might be, until you can give me a little more proof.

And what about Kerry and the swiftboaters? Well, basically the swift boat advertisements claimed that Kerry lied about parts of his military history, and Boone Pickens, one of the funders of those ads, publicly challenged the critics to demonstrate the ads' inaccuracies. He promised to provide $1 million to anyone who succeeded. Well, Kerry took the bait, and wrote to Pickens that "I am prepared to show they [the Swift Boat Veterans, often his fellow officers] lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false, I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt."

Pickens's perfectly reasonable response was to ask for Kerry's proof. As of today, no proof has been tendered by the Massachusetts Braggart.

As retired Marine Corps Major Michael E. McBride wrote in Townhall.com, Kerry "has always had the power to clear up any of the Swiftboater challenges; all he had to do is allow the Navy to distribute unaltered copies of his service record, medical records, and DD214. It is essential that these records come from DOD, so that they cannot be tampered with by Kerry or his supporters. The DOD copies are the true copies of record and the only viable evidence for these maters." McBride, citing Kerry's long reluctance to do, so goes on to write, "it is unlikely that any credible evidence exists to refute the base charges of the Swiftboaters." He concludes, "If any of my ex-squadron mates dumped on me like the Swift boat vets are dumping on Kerry, my records would have been available the next day...."

Chris my friend, I'd like to give you Birthday present: Next time you want to take the side of the New York Times, don't use as your basis for a moral foundation Bill Clinton's alleged sexual exploits (because the word "alleged" is rarely necessary in any story about Bill Clinton and sex), or John Kerry's swift boat allegations, allegations that Kerry himself can not offer any proof that they are false.

Happy Birthday My Friend!!!